- BAGHDAD (Dow Jones) -- Saboteurs
hit a pipeline carrying crude oil from the northern city of Kirkuk to the
Haditha refinery west of Baghdad over the New Year holidays, an oil industry
source said Saturday.
-
- The source said explosions hit the pipeline near the
al-Thurthar lake. The pipeline carries crude oil to the 10,000 barrel-a-day
refinery, which is 260 kilometers northwest of Baghdad.
-
- The refinery resumed operations only few days ago following
a suspension of more than a month after the same pipeline was set on fire
at a different location in October, the source said.
-
- He said repairs to the pipeline would take weeks and
production would stop at the refinery, which produces mainly gasoline and
kerosene for nearly 1 million people in nearby towns and villages.
-
- Since the U.S.-led war that ousted the government of
Saddam Hussein, Iraq has suffered from shortages of gasoline and other
oil products that are being met through imports from Kuwait, Turkey, Syria,
Iran and Jordan.
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- Persistent sabotage of Iraq's pipeline networks has decreased
Iraq's refined oil production and slowed down the oil ministry's plans
to increase oil exports.
-
- The blast follows a spate of explosions over the last
few months in Iraq's oil export pipeline to Turkey, which hampered oil
sales from the pipeline.
-
- - Hassan Hafidh, +88216 2180 3061; hafidh8@hotmail.com
-
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